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Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank have completed the tokenization of U.S. dollar demand deposits on the Ethereum mainnet.The banks issued and redeemed Custodia's Avit stablecoins on the Ethereum mainnet, marking a major milestone in blockchain-based banking innovation. They conducted a series of eight regulated test transactions, involving minting, transferring, and redeeming Avit tokens under full U.S. banking compliance, including BSA/AML/OFAC regulations. Vantage Bank handled fiat reserves and traditional banking services (Fedwire/ACH), while Custodia oversaw blockchain functions such as issuance, custody, and reconciliation through its Avit Management System. Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.... Read more

"You're not bullish enough!" an XRP enthusiast exclaimed on X last week after Ripple, which utilizes the token for cross-border transactions, announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its case against them.Many others share this excitement, and understandably so, as the conclusion of this long-standing legal battle has lifted a weight that hindered XRP's performance compared to the broader market during the 2021 bull run. Plus, there is XRP ETF hype and hopes that the token could become a part of the U.S. strategic reserve.That said, the recent price action does not reflect the above optimism, with key momentum indicators flashing a major bearish shift in trend, warning of a notable price slide ahead.XRP surged over 11% to $2.59 last Wednesday, cheering the SEC news. Since then, the follow through has been anything but bullish with prices rangebound between $2.30-$2.50, despite optimism that expected reciprocal trade tariffs from President Donald Trump on April 2 could be more measured than initially expected. Three-line break chartThe first indicator signaling bearish trend reversal is the three-line break chart, which focuses only on price movements while filtering out short-term noise, helping identify trend changes as suggested by the market and not arbitrary/discretionary trading rules.The chart consists of vertical blocks called lines or bars (green and red). A bull reversal happens when a green bar occurs with prices moving higher than the highest point of the last three red bars. On the contrary, a bearish shift is represented by the emergence of a new red bar that goes beyond the lowest point of the previous three green bars.In XRP's case, a new red bar occurred early this month in the weekly time frame and has held intact following the SEC news. The "weekly" aspect means this chart aggregates price information over a week.The new red bar indicates a bullish-to-bearish shift in momentum. Similar patterns characterized the beginnings of prolonged bear markets in 2021 and early 2018.MACDThe moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram, used to gauge trend strength and trend changes, is producing deeper bars below the zero line on the weekly chart. It's a sign of the strengthening of the downside momentum.The same indicator flipped positive in November, after which prices surged from $1 to above $3.The 5- and 10-week simple moving averages (SMAs) have crossed bearish as well, suggesting the path of least resistance is to the downside.Bollinger BandsThe Bollinger bands – volatility bands placed two standard deviations above and below XRP's 20-week SMA – have widened in response to the sharp price rally in late 2024 and early this year.Historically, prices have tended to move lower following the sharp widening of the Bollinger bands, as observed after mid-2021 and early 2018.When bullish?A firm move of $3, the high registered on March 2, would invalidate the bearish setup, negating the lower highs pattern to suggest a renewed bullish technical outlook.Some analysts expect XRP to reach as high as $10 by the end of this decade.... Read more

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Risk-assets have a spring in their step. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above $87,000 and the S&P 500 reclaimed its 200-day moving average for the first time since March 10. However, volatility is expected to rise ahead of Friday’s quarterly options expiry, with over $12 billion in notional value set to expire on Deribit with a max pain price at $85,000. Most open interest, meantime, centers around $100,000 call options. President Trump is deploying new trade war tactics, introducing “secondary tariffs” that could impose a 25% levy on any nation buying oil and gas from Venezuela, according to Bloomberg. He also signaled that while some countries may receive exemptions on tariffs, additional tariffs on autos, lumber and semiconductor chips will be announced in the coming days. These measures, part of the president's broader “America First” economic agenda, could take effect as early as April 2. Bloomberg notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent continues to advocate for tariffs, framing them as a strategic tool that serves multiple purposes: providing leverage in negotiations, generating government revenue and rebalancing trade in favor of the U.S.Meanwhile, in the U.K., Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing for Wednesday's Spring Statement amid rising bond yields that threaten to complicate fiscal planning. Early reports indicate she will propose civil service job cuts while ruling out further tax increases. Stay Alert!What to WatchCrypto:March 25: The Mimir upgrade goes live on Chromia (CHR) mainnet.March 25, 11:00 p.m.: Celo (CELO) mainnet’s hard fork network upgrade at block height 31056500 transitions it from an L1 to an Ethereum L2.March 26: Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, starts trading on Japan-based crypto exchange SBI VC Trade.March 26, 3:00 a.m.: Cronos (CRO) zkEVM v26 mainnet upgrade introduces Smart Account SSO for simpler logins and lays groundwork for the ZK Gateway to enhance cross-chain interoperability.March 26, 10:37 a.m.: Ethereum’s Hoodi testnet will activate the Pectra hard fork network upgrade at epoch 2048.March 27: Walrus (WAL) mainnet goes live.April 1: Metaplanet (TYO: 3350) 10-for-1 stock split becomes effective.MacroMarch 26, 3:00 a.m.: The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics releases February consumer price inflation data.Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. -0.4%Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3.6% vs. Prev. 3.7%Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. -0.1%Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.9% vs. Prev. 3%March 26: The U.K.’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) releases its latest Fiscal and Economic Outlook. Later in the day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will present her Spring Statement to the House of Commons.March 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis releases (Final) Q4 GDP data.GDP Growth Rate QoQ Est. 2.3% vs. Prev. 3.1%Core PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.2%PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.4% vs. Prev. 1.5%Real Consumer Spending QoQ Est. 4.2% vs. Prev. 3.7%March 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended March 22.Initial Jobless Claims Est. 225K vs. Prev. 223KMarch 27, 10:00 a.m.: The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Paul Atkins to the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Livesteam link.March 27, 3:00 p.m.: Mexico's central bank announces its interest rate decision.Target Rate Est. 9% vs. Prev. 9.5%April 2, 12:01 a.m.: The Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs plan goes live.Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)March 27: KULR Technology Group (KULR), post-market, $-0.02March 28: Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY), pre-market, C$0.38Token EventsGovernance votes & callsUniswap DAO is discussing the recognition of the canonical deployment of Uniswap v2 and v3 on Soneium.Floki DAO is voting on removing the 0.3% transaction fee charged when users buy or sell thought the TokenFi smart contract following a request from a “very important and strategically significant partner.”Sky DAO is discussing redirecting the Boost program’s budget to promote USDS on non-Ethereum networks and stop Sky token buybacks to instead direct surplus toward Sky takers.March 26, 1 p.m.: Livepeer (LPT) to hold an Open Ecosystem Call.UnlocksMarch 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.93% of its circulating supply worth $28.47 million.April 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.03% of its circulating supply worth $154.07 million.April 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 6.05% of its circulating supply worth $13.43 million.April 3: Wormhole (W) to unlock 47.64% of its circulating supply worth $141.11 million.April 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.59% of its circulating supply worth $11.82 million.April 9: Movement (MOVE) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $22.82 million.Token ListingsMarch 25: Particle Network (PARTI) to list on Binance, Gate.io, OKX, KuCoin, HashKey, Bitrue, Bitget, XT.com and others.March 27: Walrus (WAL) to list on Gate.io and Bybit.March 28: Binance to delist Aergo (AERGO).March 31: Binance to delist USDT, FDUSD, TUSD, USDP, DAI, AEUR, UST, USTC, and PAXG.ConferencesCoinDesk's Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes. Day 2 of 3: Merge Buenos AiresDay 1 of 2: PAY360 2025 (London)Day 1 of 3: Mining Disrupt (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)Day 1 of 4: Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 (Boao, China)March 26: Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt)March 26: DC Blockchain Summit 2025 (Washington)March 26-28: Real World Crypto Symposium 2025 (Sofia, Bulgaria)March 27: Building Blocks (Tel Aviv)March 27: Digital Euro Conference 2025 (Frankfurt)March 27: Web3 Banking Symposium 2.0 (Lugano, Switzerland)March 27: WIKI Finance EXPO Hong Kong 2025March 27-28: Money Motion 2025 (Zagreb, Croatia)Token TalkBy Shaurya MalwaMOG jumped 25% as memecoins caught a bid on bitcoin and ether demand. The cat-themed culture coin tends to surge whenever ETH sees buying demand, functioning as a "beta bet" on the Ethereum blockchain, where it is based. Monitoring the highest performing memecoins during a market recovery can be profitable for traders, providing cues on which tokens tend to outperform when there are gains in major cryptocurrencies.Cronos' CRO caught flak from prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT after Trump Media signed a non-binding agreement with closely related Crypto.com to launch U.S. crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the token through Crypto.com’s broker-dealer, Foris Capital US.“CRO is no different from a scam,” ZachXBT said in a tweet, referring to a governance proposal last week that increased CRO supply by more than 200%. The contentious proposal drew to a close Monday last week, with the community voting in favor of increasing token supply from 30 billion CRO to 100 billion CRO over 10 years. The vote was influenced by a small group of large and influential token holders flipped the result with a 3.2 billion token swing just before the conclusion, drawing red flags among market watchers.Derivatives PositioningCME futures basis for BTC and ETH remains low, between 4% and 7%, indicating a lack of willingness among institutional players to deploy capital despite the recent market stability.BTC perpetual funding rates dip below zero, hinting at a growing preference for bearish short positions on offshore exchanges. XMR, HBAR, NEAR, BNB, SUI and AVAX boast positive 24-hour cumulative volume deltas in a sign of net buying in perpetual futures markets. Short-dated BTC and ETH options listed on Deribit continue to show put skews. The $100K call remains the most popular option ahead of the quarterly expiry.Market Movements:BTC is down 1.12% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $86,889.75 (24hrs: -0.77%)ETH is down 1.01% at $2,064.85 (24hrs: -1.31%)CoinDesk 20 is down 0.35% at 2,782.83 (24hrs: -0.55%)Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 6 bps at 2.97%BTC funding rate is at -0.003% (-1.141% annualized) on BinanceDXY is unchanged at 104.24Gold is up 0.38% at $3,024.40/ozSilver is up 1.38% at $33.72/ozNikkei 225 closed +0.46% at 37,780.54Hang Seng closed -2.35% at 23,344.25FTSE is up 0.4% at 8,672.92Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.52% at 5,444.05DJIA closed on Monday +1.42 at 42,583.32S&P 500 closed +1.76 at 5,767.57Nasdaq closed +2.27% at 18,188.59S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +1.34% at 25,304.10S&P 40 Latin America closed -0.62% at 2,455.50U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 1 bps at 4.36%E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.18% at 5,804.75E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.33% at 20,307.25E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.15% at 42,833.00Bitcoin Stats:BTC Dominance: 61.44 (-0.20%)Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02375 (-0.17%)Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 829 EH/sHashprice (spot): $49.32Total Fees: 6.17 BTC / $540,108CME Futures Open Interest: 146,560 BTCBTC priced in gold: 28.8 ozBTC vs gold market cap: 8.19%Technical AnalysisBitcoin is rising toward the trendline that characterizes the sharp price drop from record highs. A move through the trendline resistance would open doors to resistance at $100K, followed by record highs. The strengthening of the upward momentum, signaled by the rising MACD histogram, favors the trendline breakout. Crypto EquitiesStrategy (MSTR): closed on Monday at $335.72 (+10.43%), down 0.94% at $332.58 in pre-marketCoinbase Global (COIN): closed at $203.04 (+6.94%), down 1.11% at $200.79Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$19.30 (+7.58%)MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.61 (+18.01%), down 1.71% at $14.36Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $8.72 (+9.69%), down 0.8% at $8.65Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $9.31 (+9.4%), down 0.97% at $9.22CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.79 (+18.15%), down 1.48% at $8.66CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $16.31 (+10.2%)Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $42.88 (+9.33%)Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $52.64 (+6.3%), up 3.84% at $54.66ETF FlowsSpot BTC ETFs:Daily net flow: $84.2 millionCumulative... Read more

Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said it "offboarded" a market maker for Movement's MOVE token with an association to another market maker that had been removed from the platform due to “misconduct.” Market makers are middlemen who are responsible for creating liquidity so trades can take place smoothly without big delays or price swings. They do this by quoting prices to both buyers (bid) and sellers (ask) and taking the opposite side to the transactions.The market maker, which wasn't identified, made a $38 million profit when the MOVE tokens were first offered for trading on the exchange, Binance said Tuesday. Instead of meeting its obligations to ensure sufficient order size and place orders for both bid and ask prices, it placed sell orders for 66 million MOVE tokens one day after the initial listing and “little buy orders.”One-sided market-making activity is widely considered illicit and illegal, and Binance reiterated that strict rules are in place for defaulters. The entity was offboarded on March 18, and both the Movement Labs and Movement Foundation teams were informed of the “irregularities with their market maker,” Binance said in the post. The market maker is no longer able to participate on the exchange and all proceeds were frozen to compensate users, whose details will be available at a later date.“Any project-authorized market makers who do not comply with or breach such principles and rules, Binance will take further actions against such market makers to best protect our users,” the exchange said.The development comes as Binance, in a separate and unrelated incident, suspended a staff member following an internal investigation into alleged front-running trades from a previous role at BNB Chain.... Read more

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of Strategy (MSTR). Strategy (MSTR), the U.S. company that's made buying bitcoin (BTC) a key corporate policy, recently expanded its financial toolkit with the introduction of a second Series A perpetual preferred stock, adding to its growing line of capital market instruments.The company is selling 8.5 million shares of the new offering, called Strife (STRF), at $85 each, giving it a net $711.2 million for bitcoin purchases. That's up from an initial target of $500 million. The sale ends later Tuesday. Strategy's earlier preferred issuance, Strike (STRK), initially raised $563 million.A perpetual preferred stock sits between debt and common equity in the capital structure, typically offering dividends and greater price stability. That makes it appealing to investors seeking lower volatility and more predictable returns. Unlike owners of common stock, holders do not get voting rights. STRF pays a 10% annual dividend on a $100 stated amount, with payments made quarterly in cash. If Strategy misses a dividend, the amount compounds at an additional 1% a year each up to a maximum 18% dividend rate, creating an incentive for timely payments. Strategy may redeem all STRF shares if fewer than 25% of the original issuance remains or under certain tax events, in which case shareholders would receive the liquidation preference plus any unpaid dividends. Additionally, in the event of a “fundamental change,” holders can force the company to repurchase their shares at the stated amount plus any accrued dividends.Lower dividends from STRKIn contrast, STRK offers an 8% annual dividend based on its $100 liquidation preference, though the effective yield declines as STRK’s price rises. Unlike STRF, STRK includes a conversion feature, allowing holders to swap their preferred shares into common stock at a 10:1 ratio if the common share price reaches $1,000, offering equity upside. That means the new issue functions even more as a fixed-income security, making it the less volatile of the two.While STRK may appeal to investors looking for a blend of yield and potential capital appreciation, STRF is clearly aimed at those prioritizing income and capital stability. To support these dividend payments, Strategy will rely on a combination of operational cash flow, proceeds from convertible debt offerings and at-the-market (ATM) share sales on the common stock. Strategy also has an open ATM program in place for STRK, recently purchasing 130 BTC, and has about $3.57 billion remaining on its ATM capacity through the common stock, giving it significant flexibility to fund dividend commitments while continuing to pursue its bitcoin accumulation strategy.The company's shares rose more than 10% on Monday, by which point it held 506,137 BTC.... Read more

BlackRock (BLK), the global asset manager behind the largest U.S. spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), is set to list a bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe, its first crypto ETP outside North America.The iShares Bitcoin ETP will trade on Xetra and Euronext in Paris under the ticker IB1T and on Euronext Amsterdam as BTCN on Tuesday, according listing details on iShares' website.BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is by far the largest of the 12 spot bitcoin ETFs listed in the U.S., with net assets worth over $50 billion and cumulative net inflows of just under $40 billion, according to data tracked by SoSoValue.Coinbase (COIN), which provides custody for IBIT, will do the same for the European product.The fee for the European ETP is temporarily reduced by 10 basis points to 0.15% until the end of 2025.The ETP's introduction was reported earlier by Bloomberg.... Read more

The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, has purchased over 10 million dogecoin (DOGE), worth just over $1.8 million, as part of a broader DOGE reserve strategy.House of Doge is the Foundation’s corporate and commercialization unit, which was formed in February with a five-year deal in place. It hopes to position DOGE as a payment currency, away from its predominant existence as a memecoin, as part of a framework to show it can be used for everyday payments at very low fees.House of Doge added it will unveil partnerships with various payment processors in the coming months.“With a strategic reserve, the House of Doge is laying the foundation for a payments ecosystem that ensures liquidity, stability, and reliability,” said Michael Galloro, a Member of the Board-Elect of the House of Doge, in a release. “By maintaining a reserve, we can bridge the gap between transaction processing times and real-world usability, making Dogecoin extremely practical for everyday purchases.”DOGE was among the highest gains in the run-up to President Donald Trump’s election due to the possibility of its abbreviation becoming part of the administration: the “Department of Government Efficiency,” abbreviated as D.O.G.E.It has since seen profit-taking and a sell-off alongside the broader market, with prices down more than 30% since January, according to CoinDesk market data.... Read more

Private computation and storage network Nillion, dubbed the "blind computer," debuted its mainnet and native token NIL on Monday. However, the token's market capitalization has dropped 12% in the first 24 hours alongside continued listing by major exchanges, including South Korea's Bithumb and optimism in the analyst community about the project's long-term prospects.NIL debuted with a total supply of 1 billion, of which 19.52% or 195.15 million NIL were airdropped to the community on the first day, resulting in an at-inception market capitalization of just over $165 million. Since then, its market value has dropped 12% to $144.93 million, with the token changing hands at 74 cents on major exchanges, such as Binance, Gate.io, MEXC, Bitget and others, according to data source Coingecko.Earlier on Tuesday, Bithumb, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the altcoin-savvy South Korea, announced the listing of the NIL-Korean won pair on its platform.Nillion's blind computingNillion is a decentralized platform designed to support private, high-value data storage and computation, and it works in the same way as blockchains decentralize transactions.But there's a catch. Unlike blockchains focusing on transparent ledgers, Nillion uses Nil Message Compute (NMC), which allows computations on encrypted data without exposing (decrypting) it, ensuring that no single node or party has access to sensitive data. The network's architecture combines a Coordination Layer called nilChain and Petnet, with the latter using privacy-enhancing technologies like multi-party computation, fully homomorphic encryption and trusted execution environments to deliver data security.This so-called blind computing starkly contrasts traditional methods that require decryption before processing, which exposes sensitive data, such as personal health/finance information, to security threats and misuse.Pivotal for AI boomNillion addresses the persistent challenge of data privacy and trust issues in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) – personal assistants and Healthcare AIs – private order books in decentralized finance and many more. "Nillion is tackling AI's biggest hurdle: trust. By weaving together cutting-edge privacy tech into a seamless backbone for AI, Nillion has the potential to become as fundamental to AI as SSL is to the web. If Nillion can make it as easy to use as it is powerful, they'll be powering the next wave of AI adoption," Yau Teng Yan, founder and chief evangelist at research firm Chain of Thought said in a detailed post on X."The privacy revolution is just beginning," Yan added.Bullish tokenomicsThe NIL token is the governance cryptocurrency used to pay network fees for blind computation and payments across Nillion's Coordination Layer and Petnet, securing the network through staking and participation in the on-chain governance module."NIL’s token economics is designed for adoption. NIL will power the network, securing operations while driving burn-based demand as usage scales," Yan noted.... Read more

Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped 7% as majors staged a relief rally on Tuesday driven by talks of the upcoming U.S. tariffs, due on April 2, being more measured than initially expected.As per reports, President Donald Trump's planned "reciprocal tariffs" set for April 2 may be more targeted than previously threatened, with some countries exempt and existing metal levies possibly not stacking.The tariffs unsettled markets in February, shocking stocks and cryptocurrencies alike with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 17.6% to below $80,000 from its January peak.Last week, the Federal Reserve raised inflation forecasts and lowered growth projections, likely due to Trump's trade stance, but described the tariff-driven inflation as temporary while maintaining plans for two rate cuts in 2025, supporting risk assets.This, along with the possibility of milder tariffs, has boosted market optimism, and memecoins are leading the charge. DOGE, pepecoin (PEPE), mog (MOG), floki (FLOKI), among others, are up more than 5% in the past 24 hours, with the meme sector up 5.6% on average, per CoinGecko data.That has beaten a 3% run in bitcoin, Solana’s SOL and XRP, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index up 2.7%.Memecoins jump or act as beta bets when ether (ETH) or bitcoin rise because they’re highly speculative assets with amplified sensitivity to broader crypto market trends.Retail traders often see relief in majors as a signal of bullish sentiment across the crypto ecosystem — chasing higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities like memecoins, which are typically cheaper and can deliver rapid gains in relatively shorter periods.AI Tokens Remain Stable Despite ‘Bubble’ TalkElsewhere, Artificial Intelligence (AI) majors are stable after Alibaba’s Joe Tsai said he sees sign of a bubble forming in the ecosystem, the category is up 4.5% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.“I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble,” Tsai said during an HSBC conference in Hong Kong. “I start to get worried when people are building data centers on spec. There are a number of people coming up, funds coming out, to raise billions or millions of capital.”Investment in AI appears to be occurring ahead of current demand, Tsai believes.NEAR protocol, the largest AI token by market cap, is flat in trading today, but up 14% in the last week as the market continues to positively digest news that Coinbase and the biggest names in AI were working together to collaboratively develop AI agent technology.Story’s IP token also continues to do well, up 8% on-day, as the project continues to secure notable Hollywood and Korean popstar intellectual property to monetize on its chain. Story has pitched its project as a way for rights holders to survive the AI revolution by easily creating frameworks to license their content for AI training.... Read more

Circle plans to launch USDC in Japan on March 26 through a partnership with local heavyweight SBI Holdings, marking a significant milestone for both the global stablecoin market and Japan’s blockchain ecosystem.“Japan has long been at the forefront of the adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology, and Japan’s regulatory leadership has similarly been out in front on clear rules for the use of stablecoins in the Japan financial system,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle said in a release.The launch comes weeks after Circle and SBI received regulatory approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) earlier in March under the country's electronics payment framework.Allaire said in a post on X that Circle had spent two years engaging with regulators in Japan in preparation for the launch.“We believe this initiative will enhance financial accessibility and drive digital asset innovation, aligning with our broader vision for the future of payments and blockchain-based finance in Japan,” Yoshitaka Kitao, representative director, chairman, president and CEO of SBI Holdings said in a statement.USDC currently has a market cap of around $59.7 billion, according to CoinGecko data.The Philippines largest digital wallet, GCash, recently added support for USDC.According to a 2024 report from Circle, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 29% of global digital currency transaction volume, ahead of Western Europe at 22% and North America at 19%. ... Read more

Defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox made waves early Tuesday, moving large amounts of bitcoin (BTC) to two wallets, according to on-chain data tracking platform Arkham Intelligence.The address associated with the exchange transferred 893 BTC ($78.11M) to its hot wallet, labelled 1Jbez and 10,608 BTC ($927.48M) to a change wallet identified as 1DcoA during Tuesday's early Asian trading hours when the cryptocurrency traded above $87,000 in the spot market.The latest action is the exchange's third significant on-chain movement of funds in four weeks. The exchange moved over $900 million in BTC on March 11 and over $1 billion in BTC on March 6. However, the latest coin shuffling has not impacted the spot price so far, as seen early this month.That's in stark contrast to mid-last year, when Mt. Gox's transfer of coins spurred fears of creditor liquidations, causing price volatility.However, last October, the exchange extended its complete creditor payout deadline by a full year to Oct. 31, 2025, citing ongoing verification and processing requirements for claimants.... Read more

The Binance Wallet team said Tuesday in a post on X that it has suspended a staff member accused of using confidential information from their previous roles at BNB Chain to front-run a token launch. The employee allegedly purchased coins via multiple wallets ahead of a Token Generation Event (TGE), later selling part of the holdings for quick profits."This behavior constitutes front-running based on non-public information obtained from his previous role and is a clear breach of company policy," a statement from the Wallet team reads. Binance's investigation found no evidence that the Wallet team employees were involved in insider trading. The company said the information they used was based on data obtained while they were at BNB Chain, not on the Wallet team.Binance said it will cooperate with relevant authorities to pursue appropriate legal action.Binance's suspension of this Wallet employee echoes Coinbase's 2023 scandal involving former manager Ishan Wahi, who admitted leaking token-listing details with his brother and another contact. Coinbase eventually got involved in the case to contest Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the tokens Wahi inside-traded on were securities. ... Read more

Crypto observers were speculating on Monday that World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, might be testing its long-awaited dollar stablecoin before rolling out for the broader public.Blockchain sleuths earlier today noted a flurry of activity with a token labeled as World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) on blockchain monitoring websites Etherscan and BscScan. Blockchain data shows that USD1 was deployed earlier this month on the Ethereum and BNB Chain networks and series of transactions with the token occurring over the past couple weeks.Some transfers included addresses linked to Wintermute, a large digital asset trading firm and market maker, and crypto custodian BitGo, according to Arkham Intelligence data. The token's supply currently stood at around 3.5 million-3.5 million on Ethereum and BNB Chain, per Etherscan and BscScan.Changpeng CZ Zhao, founder of crypto exchange giant Binance, brought widespread attention to the token by "welcoming" the project on BNB Chain in a post with a screenshot of the USD1 BscScan profile shared with his 10 million followers. The post, he later said, triggered a wave of copy-cats aiming to capitalize on the new-found attention.WLFI, reacting in a X post, said USD1 is not currently available for trading and crypto users should beware of scams.Stablecoin buzzWLFI, a project spearheaded by Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, made a splash last year as one of the first crypto projects enjoying the backing of Trump. The protocol aims to provide a blockchain-based marketplace where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools and transact with stablecoins.It's been widely known that the project is working on crafting its own stablecoin, but there hasn't been any official communication about exact plans and timing of launching the token publicly. CoinDesk has reached out to the team, but hasn't received any replies.Stablecoins are one of the fastest-growing corners of the crypto industry and widely regarded as the killer use case for blockchains. With their prices pegged to an external asset, predominantly to the U.S. dollar, they are widely used as a crypto trading pair and transactions on blockchain rails. They are also increasingly used for everyday payments, remittances and savings, attracting the attention of many venture capital investors.Buzz around the asset class rejuvenated over the past months as the Trump administration elevated stablecoin regulation to the top of its crypto agenda. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that stablecoins have a key role in preserving the U.S. dollar's global role as a reserve currency.... Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump's media company, Trump Media (DJT), is looking to partner with crypto exchange Crypto.com to launch a series of exchange-traded products (ETPs) and funds (ETFs), the company said Monday.The ETPs will include crypto assets and securities from other sectors such as the energy industry, the announcement said. Crypto.com will provide the backend technology, custody solutions, and crypto supply.The investment vehicles are expected to launch in 2025, the press release said.Trump Media is the company behind Truth Social, the social media platform frequently used by Trump. This is only the latest of crypto initiatives backed by the President or his family. Trump and his entourage have issued multiple NFT collections and memecoins, not to mention their DeFi protocol, World Liberty Financial (WLFI).The DJT stock is up more than 9% after-hours since the announcement.... Read more

Massachusetts’ top securities regulator has reportedly launched a probe into Robinhood over the popular trading platform’s recent decision to launch an in-app prediction markets hub that allows customers to bet on the outcome of events, including March Madness match-ups.According to a Monday report from Reuters, Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin — a notoriously aggressive regulator — sent Robinhood a subpoena last week seeking information about the number of Robinhood’s users in Massachusetts that have requested to trade college sports events contracts, and seeking copies of Robinhood’s related marketing materials."This is just another gimmick from a company that's very good at gimmicks to lure investors away from sound investing," Galvin told Reuters. Galvin's office confirmed the investigation to CoinDesk, and added that Robinhood's response to the subpoena is due on April 3.Robinhood’s prediction market, which is powered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated Kalshi, launched on March 17 with March Madness-related event contracts, as well as another linked to the upper bound of the target fed funds rate in May. At the time of the launch, Robinhood told CoinDesk that it had been in communication with the CFTC “in recent weeks” leading up to the launch.A spokesperson for Robinhood reiterated that the event contracts offered through its prediction markets hub were “regulated by the CFTC and offered through CFTC-registered entities.”“Prediction markets have become increasingly relevant for retail and institutional investors alike, and we're proud to be one of the first platforms to offer these products to retail customers in a safe and regulated manner,” the spokesperson added.The trading platform previously attempted to launch its prediction markets hub in February, ahead of the Super Bowl, but delayed the launch at the request of the CFTC.... Read more